The Ten Big Romantic Plots
By now anyone who follows my LJ has to know I like to read books on writing. I didn’t buy this one, but when while skimming I saw this list, I had to write it down and share.
It explains a lot. Like how the lamest plot device in creation, The Marriage Law, manages to take up so much real estate in the SS/HG ship. I’ve never been much of a fan of romance novels per se. I love romance, but embeded in mystery, classic and mainstream fiction, and sci-fi and fantasy rather than what is found on the romance aisles. Never been a Harlequin kinda gal. But note what’s number one, and number four, on this list.
This is from Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger, Page 321
TEN PLOTS EVERY EDITOR KNOWS
1. Marriage of Convenience
2. Stranded With a Stranger
3. Runaway Bride
4. Secret Baby
5. Reunion Romance (i.e. ex-spouses or ex-lovers run into each other)
6. Back from the Dead
7. Mistaken Identity (and disguises-such as cross-dressing)
8. Woman in Jeopardy
9. The Dad Next Door (kids are left on the door-step so to speak)
10. Even Sketchier Setups:
Boss/employee
Amnesia
Virgin heroine
Pregnant heroine
On the run
Rancher/cowboy and the city girl
For those innocents who haven’t been in the ship for five minutes yet, the first on the list fits “MLC”-the Marriage Law Challenge. To stop dangerous inbreeding, a law is passed forcing female Muggle-borns to accept petitions of marriage from male pure-bloods. The law gives all power in the marriage to the male pure-blood.
Never made sense to me. If Voldemort types were running things, I’d think they wouldn’t want “racial mixing,” and if those against the DE’s are in charge, why are they stripping power from Muggle-borns? And why would any modern witch put up with it? Admittedly, canon often shows the Ministry as unjust and inept and wizarding society seems somewhat backward-but that misogynist and totalitarian they'd force marriages along patriarchal lines?
That said, it’s arguably the most popular trope in the ship, with 52 stories on Ashwinder alone before they stopped taking them, and 72 are listed in the files of WIKTT, the group that originated the challenge. A search for “Marriage Law” in Harry Potter stories on FanFiction.Net yields 124 hits, not all of which are SS/HG, but almost all are. Not even the revelation in Half-Blood Prince that Snape is a half-blood has killed this trope-there are new ones being written post-HBP.
Popular stories based on or inspired by the MLC include: You Can’t Have One Without the Other, His Draught of Delicate Poison, Black Rose, A Dish Served Cold, Cloak of Courage, The Power of the Quill, What I Want, The Panther and the Lioness, The Laws of Love, An Ever-Fixed Mark, The Rules of Engagement, Dance With the Devil, Marriage Vows, An Inconvenient Marriage, Chaos Is Come Again.
I’ll even admit to having three favorites in this trope-but they reverse the dynamic in some way (Helga's Meeting of the Minds) or quickly break away from the mold (bloodcult_of_freud's Tyger! Tyger!) or spoof it like larilee's A Match Made by Law.
Sometimes, an author does manage to make something fresh out of cliche :-) There was recently a charming HBP-compliant MLC story by ladyofthemasque, The Act, where it’s Snape, not Hermione, who is the victim of the law, and I think larilee is right in her comments on WIKTT that it might be interesting to see a story where the MLC threatens to break Snape and Hermione apart rather than force them together since he has turned out to be a half-blood. What if they’re already in love and such a law bars a union?
Although I really think the Marriage Law could use a rest-really do.
I guess in a weird way most “rapefic” can fall into this category in the sense of forced union-or all those fics where it’s all the fault of a potion.
Haven’t seen much of 2-Stranded-unless we can consider Time-Turner fics a variety of that? A story I love that fits fairly well is snarkywench_64's Damn! We Missed the Reception!. I guess in a way triangle stories or stories where Hermione is unfaithful to Ron or Harry are the closest fit to Number 3. Like Betz’s And They Didn’t Live Happily Ever After, or Azazello’s But You Alone.
“Secret Baby” is another trope I see a lot I don’t really understand the popularity of and the premise of which usually makes me go Huh? That said, I’ve enjoyed Ehann's Lost and Found and ferporcel’s Nathan in Not Only a Granger is a charmer.
I could see one of my top, top favorite stories, bambu345’s Calling Card as an example of a “Reunion Romance” in a very loose way, and I fear number six, “Back from the Dead” is the only way we’re going to have our SS/HG and be canon-compliant after the last book.…
And I know-I am overthinking this waaaayyyy too much. It took this list for me to figure out this is all about romance fiction after all?
That said, do people who read more widely than me notice a different pattern in other HP ships? I think the obsession with forced unions, particuarly MLC, is special to SS/HG, for instance, though someone told me the challenge started with Dramoine and is seen in some forms in Snarry. God knows rapefic was all too common in Trek, particularly slash, though I don't think the tropes above were anywhere near as common there.
It explains a lot. Like how the lamest plot device in creation, The Marriage Law, manages to take up so much real estate in the SS/HG ship. I’ve never been much of a fan of romance novels per se. I love romance, but embeded in mystery, classic and mainstream fiction, and sci-fi and fantasy rather than what is found on the romance aisles. Never been a Harlequin kinda gal. But note what’s number one, and number four, on this list.
This is from Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger, Page 321
TEN PLOTS EVERY EDITOR KNOWS
1. Marriage of Convenience
2. Stranded With a Stranger
3. Runaway Bride
4. Secret Baby
5. Reunion Romance (i.e. ex-spouses or ex-lovers run into each other)
6. Back from the Dead
7. Mistaken Identity (and disguises-such as cross-dressing)
8. Woman in Jeopardy
9. The Dad Next Door (kids are left on the door-step so to speak)
10. Even Sketchier Setups:
Boss/employee
Amnesia
Virgin heroine
Pregnant heroine
On the run
Rancher/cowboy and the city girl
For those innocents who haven’t been in the ship for five minutes yet, the first on the list fits “MLC”-the Marriage Law Challenge. To stop dangerous inbreeding, a law is passed forcing female Muggle-borns to accept petitions of marriage from male pure-bloods. The law gives all power in the marriage to the male pure-blood.
Never made sense to me. If Voldemort types were running things, I’d think they wouldn’t want “racial mixing,” and if those against the DE’s are in charge, why are they stripping power from Muggle-borns? And why would any modern witch put up with it? Admittedly, canon often shows the Ministry as unjust and inept and wizarding society seems somewhat backward-but that misogynist and totalitarian they'd force marriages along patriarchal lines?
That said, it’s arguably the most popular trope in the ship, with 52 stories on Ashwinder alone before they stopped taking them, and 72 are listed in the files of WIKTT, the group that originated the challenge. A search for “Marriage Law” in Harry Potter stories on FanFiction.Net yields 124 hits, not all of which are SS/HG, but almost all are. Not even the revelation in Half-Blood Prince that Snape is a half-blood has killed this trope-there are new ones being written post-HBP.
Popular stories based on or inspired by the MLC include: You Can’t Have One Without the Other, His Draught of Delicate Poison, Black Rose, A Dish Served Cold, Cloak of Courage, The Power of the Quill, What I Want, The Panther and the Lioness, The Laws of Love, An Ever-Fixed Mark, The Rules of Engagement, Dance With the Devil, Marriage Vows, An Inconvenient Marriage, Chaos Is Come Again.
I’ll even admit to having three favorites in this trope-but they reverse the dynamic in some way (Helga's Meeting of the Minds) or quickly break away from the mold (bloodcult_of_freud's Tyger! Tyger!) or spoof it like larilee's A Match Made by Law.
Sometimes, an author does manage to make something fresh out of cliche :-) There was recently a charming HBP-compliant MLC story by ladyofthemasque, The Act, where it’s Snape, not Hermione, who is the victim of the law, and I think larilee is right in her comments on WIKTT that it might be interesting to see a story where the MLC threatens to break Snape and Hermione apart rather than force them together since he has turned out to be a half-blood. What if they’re already in love and such a law bars a union?
Although I really think the Marriage Law could use a rest-really do.
I guess in a weird way most “rapefic” can fall into this category in the sense of forced union-or all those fics where it’s all the fault of a potion.
Haven’t seen much of 2-Stranded-unless we can consider Time-Turner fics a variety of that? A story I love that fits fairly well is snarkywench_64's Damn! We Missed the Reception!. I guess in a way triangle stories or stories where Hermione is unfaithful to Ron or Harry are the closest fit to Number 3. Like Betz’s And They Didn’t Live Happily Ever After, or Azazello’s But You Alone.
“Secret Baby” is another trope I see a lot I don’t really understand the popularity of and the premise of which usually makes me go Huh? That said, I’ve enjoyed Ehann's Lost and Found and ferporcel’s Nathan in Not Only a Granger is a charmer.
I could see one of my top, top favorite stories, bambu345’s Calling Card as an example of a “Reunion Romance” in a very loose way, and I fear number six, “Back from the Dead” is the only way we’re going to have our SS/HG and be canon-compliant after the last book.…
And I know-I am overthinking this waaaayyyy too much. It took this list for me to figure out this is all about romance fiction after all?
That said, do people who read more widely than me notice a different pattern in other HP ships? I think the obsession with forced unions, particuarly MLC, is special to SS/HG, for instance, though someone told me the challenge started with Dramoine and is seen in some forms in Snarry. God knows rapefic was all too common in Trek, particularly slash, though I don't think the tropes above were anywhere near as common there.